Celebrating centenary of impenetrable Athlone Olympians claiming FAI Cup glory

This St Patrick's Day marks a significant milestone for Athlone Town - 100 years on from their one, and to date only, men’s FAI Cup triumph, a success that spawned into Olympic honours for nearly half the team.

A crowd of 18,000 made their way to Dalymount Park on 17 March, 1924 for the final of what was known then as the Free State Cup, with Town prevailing 1-0 against Fordsons thanks to a goal from Dinny Hannon - the first ever player to represent both the FAI and IFA in international competition.

Hannon’s story is just one of a number of interesting threads that emerged from an impenetrable team that lifted the cup without conceding a goal.

In 1913, under the guise of the IFA, which at that stage governed football across the isle, Hannon played in the first Ireland team to beat England. In royal blue tops and white shorts, they won 2-1 at Windsor Park in Belfast.

Eleven years later, Hannon would also play in the FAI’s first post-Independence international as the Ireland Free State team, as they were known, defeated Bulgaria 1-0 at the 1924 Paris Games before losing a quarter-final clash with the Netherlands.

Hannon was not alone in France with goalkeeper Paddy Reilly, John Joe Dykes, who would captain the side, Tommy Muldoon and Frank Ghent also getting the Olympic call.

Another player, Jimmy Hope, was scheduled to go before a bout of pneumonia took that opportunity away from him.

Still, Hope, who died in 1976, had a massive impact on that Athlone Town team and took particular pride in that fact that they didn’t concede a goal en route to the cup, a select group that also contains Dundalk (1958), Shamrock Rovers (1968) and Sligo Rovers (2010).

"One of the greatest stories from that Athlone team, and one of the things grandad